CBRS based LTE Technology Benefits

Introduction

Private mobile networks are here to stay. With the arrival of CBRS spectrum in the United States, 4G LTE cellular wireless technology can be made accessible to enterprise IT organizations and enable accelerated adoption of business-critical mobile devices on an express lane of wireless communication.

Private mobile networks powered by CBRS based LTE will open the doors to new set of apps that optimize the way people work – in addition to improving the quality of experience for existing set of critical app infrastructure.

What’s now needed is an end-to-end networking solution – one that can easily integrate with an existing enterprise network and drastically simplify cellular wireless operations.

Technology Benefits

New digitization efforts in business – where stakes are higher than ever – will have high expectations from private mobile networks in order to justify investment. Given limited resources, time and budget, enterprise IT organizations need clarity on what CBRS based cellular wireless is for and why.

The need to deploy additional infrastructure have to be associated with tangible technology benefit statements that are applicable to most critical enterprise owned devices and sensitive / critical applications that they support. There are five key technology benefits that come with CBRS based private LTE networks and would be reasons for innovation as part of an enterprise IT infrastructure.

Wireless with service levels

CBRS based private mobile networks offer service level objective (SLO) metrics for minimum throughput, maximum latency and jitter and/or maximum packet error rate – per standard. Instead of random access to wireless medium by each connected device, CBRS based LTE access points instruct and schedule such devices on when they can get access to wireless medium and for how long. These two key technology principles translate to increased reliability and availability of the network resources when supporting mobile apps and devices. The level of predictability that has been available to devices that sit on the wired Ethernet or fiber networks, can now be enabled over enterprise wireless.

Performance at range

Large area coverage capability for CBRS based LTE access points is a result of the high-power levels – 1W (30dBm) indoors and 50W (47dBm) outdoors – but also dependent on the hearing abilities of the radio and the mobile devices that are connecting to the network. Comparatively, while Wi-Fi provides reliable network connectivity to mobile devices when the signal strength of the packet transmissions is down to at least -90dBm, LTE wireless in the CBRS spectrum can maintain connections at -120 dBm. Increased coverage area per radio means less cabling and switching infrastructure, contributing to the overall return on investment for capital and operational expenses by enterprise IT teams.  

Unnoticeable mobility

Same cellular wireless modem that allows a mobile device to stay connected when it is traveling 65mph on the highway – is the same modem that allows it to connect to a CBRS based private mobile network within an enterprise environment. LTE enables this by coordinating handoff of the clients between the radios in the infrastructure – instead of leaving the decision to roam to the devices themselves. By taking into account the coverage and capacity resources available across the entire network footprint, a CBRS based LTE network is empowered to make a better roaming decision for the device, than the device itself. Business critical apps that demand real-time response time from the network and a predictable service levels will surely enjoy that wireless network’s ability to fast roam with an unnoticeable delay to the end users and the applications they rely on.

Clean spectrum

Use of CBRS spectrum by enterprises will be coordinated via certified Spectrum Access Systems (SAS) certified by FCC in the United States. This coordination translates to clean and undisrupted utilization of the spectrum when nearby networks are present and are within earshot of each other. This serves as a big step in improving the ability for enterprises to deploy mission critical devices on their private wireless spectrum without the negative impact of external interference sources.

IoT ready coverage

CBRS based private mobile networks also. Many IoT devices, and business apps that they support, come with relatively low bandwidth requirements when connected to an enterprise network. While the Wi-Fi based enterprise wireless networks maintain connectivity down to 1Mbps (2.4 GHz Wi-Fi) or 6Mbps (5GHz Wi-Fi) for a mobile device, CBRS based network extend that minimum performance requirements down to 50-100Kbps, delivering “cell edge performance”. This flexibility allows for an LTE access point to provide greater coverage area for an IoT infrastructure – reducing the need to deploy extra access points and improving capital expense metrics across the board.

Solution Components

Celona is the first in the industry to offer the entire hardware and software stack require to deploy and operate private LTE networks in a highly automated manner – without compromising the powerful features of the cellular wireless technology. Celona solution offers three areas of unique differentiation in the market:

• First integrated end-to-end private mobile network architecture,
• Only solution that truly integrates with an existing enterprise network, and
• KPI-driven operational model that focuses on app experiences beyond infrastructure

For additional details on the CBRS spectrum, fundamentals of LTE/5G wireless and Celona's solution architecture, take a look at our technology webinars.

Conclusion

It is clear from past history that application architectures have always been cause for innovation within the enterprise networks, especially at the edge where devices, apps and network connectivity meet. Ethernet and IP based networking solutions in the enterprise have tremendously benefited from the arrival of client-server architecture for digital applications. Move to the cloud powered mobile apps for enterprise users have inspired innovation for enterprise Wi-Fi. We see a similar pattern emerging.

Enterprise apps that require real-time decision making at the edge demand AI-based learning models in the cloud. Such apps automate traditionally manual tasks at work and enable workers and employees to immediately get access to useful insights. They run on enterprise owned and staff operated devices that can either be mobile or be deployed as part of the IoT infrastructure. They provide the most critical business data to control systems such as the ones we see for video surveillance, patient monitoring, critical communications and more. These apps and devices eliminate the need for manual data entry, review of countless reports, hours of delay in making a decision critical to business operations.

We believe that these new generation of apps need to be supported by an enterprise wireless technology with the highest levels of reliability, availability and quality. We also believe that such a technology should be made accessible to the enterprise IT departments without breaking the bank for capital and operational expense.

At Celona, we are bringing to market a private mobile network solution that accelerates the adoption of business-critical apps, automates deployment of cellular wireless and drastically simplifies its adoption by enterprise IT organizations. We are looking forward to working with enterprise organizations across different industries as we take enterprise wireless to where it has not yet been.

You can join us during this journey by signing up to our product trial program.

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